Saturday, 11 June 2016

Adelaide Retro Computing Meeting June 2016

Last night was our monthly Adelaide Retro Computing group meeting, with a theme of Retro console systems from prior to 2000. Of course naturally I brought my Amiga CD32 for a 2 player versus game competition for a prize on the night! We also saw some other very interesting and rare console systems on display!

Early on it was clear we were going to see some very interesting retro game consoles!

First up is some Playstation 1 development kit hardware and SDKs - even a PS-One with the optional attachable screen:

Casio PV-1000 anyone? Never seen one of these before!

This Japanese system also included a seriously different joystick controller:

Can't imagine that pressing the start and select button, or hitting the sliding Main/Attack functions in game would be easy!

Also present was this NEC PC-FX game console - I definitely had a game on this one!

Paul from RetroSpekt showing us how it's done on the PC-FX:

I decided to bring along a number of systems - an Amiga CD32, Intellivision Flashback, Neo Geo X, the first ever Nintendo Game & Watch game called "Ball" (this one is a remake for Nintendo Club members - available only as a reward in Japan) and more:

I received lots of feedback about the Neo Geo X system particularly:

It's party piece is that the main unit is a big docking station for the system which is actually a portable gaming console:

Moving around the bustling event room I came across this amazing music production system, using a Sega Megadrive and other musical devices to produce music directly using the megadrive system (with a specially made cartridge).

The creator was present on the night, showing off it's capabilities - very interesting!

I love stuff like this - so interesting to see these kind of projects in development, right here in Adelaide:

There was plenty of interest in this system:

Next to this system was also an Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear, Nokia N-Gage, and a Megadrive portable gaming console (also running the same development kit as the Megadrive system shown above):

Sega Master System II, Sega Megadrive I, Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast also were on display:

Speaking of Retro, how about this system - a Philips Tele-sports TV Game system:

You can also see a Hanimex TV Game system box in the background - I had a game of Pong on this system and it was surprisingly fun - I did lose though:

The main controller allows you to control the speed of the ball, the size of the bats on the fly, which makes for a challenging game when your opponent keeps changing it!

You can see the smaller second player controller connected to the main unit:

For me though, a big highlight was being able to finally see and play a Fujitsu FM Towns Marty system. I have wanted to play with one of these systems since the early 1990's when I became aware of them. Only ever sold in Japan, they are a very interesting system indeed:

Some close ups of the FM Towns Marty, showing the tray load CD drive, mouse, and the floppy drive installed on the side:

I definitely had a few goes of Raiden on the Marty:

While doing that I couldn't help but notice the Casio Loopy box perched above - another Retro console system I have never heard of, which was on display at our meeting tonight - I was glad to see it:

Also on display was this FZ-10 Panasonic 3DO.

An Atari XE Game system was on display (which was at our last meeting), and now upgraded with extra ram internally that allows it to run some interesting demos from it's specially made SD to cartridge converter:

The hall was busy throughout the night:

An Adelaide developer has been working for the last 6 years on this Atari Jaguar game Rebooteroids, which he brought along especially to show off at the meeting tonight - very impressive:

Aron was on soldering duty again tonight, helping out myself with an Amiga 600 soldering project (I will cover in a later blog entry), and also an unwell Neo Geo CD system - thanks mate for doing this service at our meetings:

Also present was some interesting portable gaming systems, like these Retro Pacman systems:

I remember the yellow one in the middle really well from when I was a kid, and quickly had a go at it:

Lots of Gameboy variants were on display too - such as these Gameboy Color, Gameboy light, Gameboy Pocket and original Gameboy systems:

Sega Game Gear was also running Mortal Kombat, with the optional TV Tuner and magnification add ons on display too:

For our presentation at the meeting, George introduced Dave from RetroSpekt, who gave us a quick overview of the groups activities and doing their best to advance retro gaming awareness and enjoyment throughout the community - great to see!

After Dave's presentation, I then setup the Amiga CD32 for a 2 player retro gaming competition - the prize was a boxed Atari Flashback 3 system I donated as a prize!

I decided on Skidmarks 2 as the game to play, a fun isometric 3d racing game that can be completed quickly, allowing us to have as many challengers as possible to have a go:

We had plenty of challengers, and it was a lot of fun to watch:

In the end the prize went to a very worthy winner - here I am (on the right) presenting the prize to the winner:

Moving back around the room it seems new systems just kept popping up on display! Here is a Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 and SNES that Traksion brought in:

Another rare system on display on the night was this Nuon system, which was released in the late 1990's in a standard Samsung DVD form factor case - here running Tempest 3000:

Yet another system I had never heard of until this meeting!

Nuon system boot screen and Iron Soldier 3 being played on it:

A Sears rebadged Atari 2600 (VCS) was also on display, brought in by Aron:

After some work by Aron, the Neo Geo CD was connected up and running late in the evening, although it still has some issues to work through - it was nice to see it running at the meeting though:

The meeting tonight was a great night with a large attendance, and we sincerely thank everyone who came along, and especially those people who brought in systems to display, and I hope you all had a great time! I am very much looking forward to next months meeting! :-)